The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the data for this configuration—Intel Core i7-12700K paired with AMD Radeon RX 570—shows a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics card. The benchmark results indicate that playable performance is only achievable at the lowest settings, and even then, only at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS to provide practical settings guidance for this specific hardware combination.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable preset for this system is Low. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 42.8 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches a smooth experience. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p results in a significant drop to 31.1 FPS, a decrease of over 11 FPS, which will be noticeable in a horror game where timing and atmosphere are critical. The High preset at 1080p yields only 17.8 FPS, and Ultra drops further to 15.8 FPS, both of which are effectively unplayable.

For users willing to accept a lower resolution, the Low preset at 2560x1440 provides an average of 38.6 FPS. This is a more fluid experience than any 1080p setting above Low, but it comes with a reduction in image sharpness. The data suggests that there is no scenario where Medium, High, or Ultra settings provide an acceptable framerate. The Medium preset at 1080p is the only other option that cracks 30 FPS, but the 31.1 FPS average is marginal and likely to suffer in busier scenes. The recommendation is clear: prioritize the Low preset to achieve the best balance of responsiveness and visual clarity, and consider running at 1440p Low if you prefer higher resolution over the slight FPS gain at 1080p.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the primary bottleneck in this configuration. The GPU features a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz, with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The benchmark results show that the card's performance ceiling is very low for this game, as evidenced by the fact that even at 1080p, the Ultra preset only manages 15.8 FPS. This indicates that the game's rendering demands far exceed what the Polaris 20 chip can provide, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.

The VRAM capacity is a critical factor. With only 4 GB, the card is likely exceeding its memory buffer at higher settings and resolutions, which contributes to the severe performance degradation. The data shows that the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is a 27 FPS swing (42.8 vs 15.8), whereas the difference between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings is only 4.2 FPS (42.8 vs 38.6). This pattern suggests that the GPU's compute and memory limitations, rather than resolution, are the primary constraints. The card's 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is simply insufficient for The Medium's higher presets, making Low the only realistic option.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals a GPU-bound scenario. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the Low preset reduces the average from 42.8 FPS to 38.6 FPS, a drop of approximately 10%. However, moving from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 on the same preset results in a more dramatic fall to 31.7 FPS, another 18% reduction. This non-linear scaling is typical of a card hitting its memory bandwidth and fill rate limits.

The High preset shows a different pattern: 17.8 FPS at 1080p, 18.1 FPS at 1440p, and 12.1 FPS at 4K. The fact that 1080p and 1440p scores are nearly identical suggests that at these settings, the GPU is so overwhelmed that resolution has little impact until the 4K pixel count pushes it over the edge. This indicates that the RX 570 is not just resolution-limited, but fundamentally compute-limited at higher quality settings. For this combination, resolution scaling only provides meaningful FPS gains when combined with the Low preset, and even then, 4K remains a distant target at 31.7 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this system?

A: The Low preset is the only viable option. At 1920x1080 it delivers 42.8 FPS, which is the highest average in the dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 31.1 FPS, while High and Ultra fall to 17.8 FPS and 15.8 FPS respectively.

Q: Can I play The Medium at 1440p with this hardware?

A: Yes, but only on the Low preset, which yields 38.6 FPS. All other settings at 1440p produce average framerates below 22 FPS (Medium: 21.9, High: 18.1, Ultra: 12.1), making them impractical for gameplay.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-12700K holding back the RX 570 in this game?

A: No. The benchmark results show that the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU is a high-end 12-core processor with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and its performance is far ahead of what this GPU can utilize. The FPS is consistently low across all settings, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between 1080p and 4K?

A: On the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 42.8 at 1080p to 31.7 at 4K, a difference of 11.1 FPS. On the High preset, the drop is from 17.8 at 1080p to 12.1 at 4K, showing that the absolute FPS loss is smaller but the relative impact is severe due to the already low performance.

Q: Is the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: The data suggests it is a major limitation. The performance collapse when moving from Low to Medium settings indicates the card cannot handle the increased texture and geometry data, likely causing memory pressure that severely impacts the average FPS.

Q: What is the overall ranking of this specific CPU/GPU combination for The Medium?

A: This combination ranks 1604 out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 5% of all configurations. This confirms that it is a very low-performing setup for this particular title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It features 25 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU scores 29241 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4128 in single-core, placing it at the 89th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, has an average score that is only 0.3% lower, indicating that this is a very capable processor.

However, in this gaming benchmark, the CPU's role is minimal. The measured FPS values are consistently low, and the scaling between settings suggests the workload is entirely on the GPU. For example, at 1080p, the FPS varies from 42.8 on Low to 15.8 on Ultra, which is a 2.7x difference. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see much less variation between settings. The fact that the fps drops so significantly with higher settings confirms that the RX 570 is saturated, and the i7-12700K is effectively idle, waiting for the GPU to deliver frames. This CPU has more than enough headroom for this game, meaning the upgrade path for better performance lies entirely in replacing the graphics card.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data is as follows:

1920x1080

• Low: 42.8 FPS
• Medium: 31.1 FPS
• High: 17.8 FPS
• Ultra: 15.8 FPS

2560x1440

• Low: 38.6 FPS
• Medium: 21.9 FPS
• High: 18.1 FPS
• Ultra: 12.1 FPS

3840x2160

• Low: 31.7 FPS
• Medium: 20.2 FPS
• High: 12.1 FPS
• Ultra: 12.2 FPS

These numbers paint a clear picture. At 1080p, only the Low preset exceeds 40 FPS. The Medium preset is just above 30 FPS, which is marginal for a game requiring precise timing. High and Ultra are below 18 FPS, making them unplayable. At 1440p, the Low preset is the only one above 30 FPS. At 4K, even the Low preset drops to 31.7 FPS, with all other presets falling to around 20 FPS or below. The data consistently shows that the RX 570 is overwhelmed by The Medium's demands, and the i7-12700K's substantial power cannot compensate for the GPU's lack of performance. This system is suitable only for Low settings at 1080p or 1440p, and any attempt to increase visual fidelity will result in a slideshow.